NJ Monthly High School rankings 2010 (Westfield, Maplewood: neighborhoods, purchase, calculating)

[UCBerkley85]

Originally Posted by UrbanQuest

Wow. Great posts.

I think somebody mentioned it already. How in the hell did Princeton drop to #44? I think there was an error made in the # of graduates going on to 4 year colleges.

That's very hard to believe.

Princeton High School was actually ranked by Wall Street Journal as the Best Public School in NJ. In addition, it ranked Princeton High School as one of the Top 5 Public schools in the UNITED STATES !
There ranking was based on the actual % of students who are accepted in the "most selective colleges" in america such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, John hopkins, etc.

I believe only two other NJ Public High schools made it to the list.

Princeton area's two elite PRIVATE schools also made it to Wall Street Journal's best high schools in the country.

Namely Princeton Day School & Lawrenceville School.

Note: The number #1 high school in NJ based on the WSJ was:

1) Delbarton Prep ( All boys private catholic in Morristown) -was ranked
# 9 best high school in the entire united states.- the only NJ school to be named top 10 in the country.

2) Lawrenceville School ( Private Co-ed non-religious in Lawrenceville, NJ-next to Princeton)

3) Kent Place ( All Girls private non-religious in Summit )

All top 10 best high schools in the US were private.

But Princeton High school's success especially as a Public school was very impressive. They attribute a lot of this to a very high concentration of students who have parents who are PROFESSORS at Princeton University with Phd's Doctorate degrees. So their children are obviously also highly educated & talented.

Personal opinion: I believe the WSJ just exposed or at least showed us why the wealthy in the country especially in the Northeast Region , the West Coast & the highly educated wealthy region of VA/MD spend $30K to $45 K per year for high school.

Its much more than quality education. Its about access to Top Universities in the country. It obviously gives their kids the extra edge. But if you take a look at National AP Testings, places like Delbarton, Kent, Lawrenceville, Princeton really have a VERY HIGH PERCENTAGE of students who
do extremely well. There is No fudging numbers. It is what it is. Kids across the nation take the same AP Exams. From the hot streets of Phoenix to the marble streets of Boston. Its the same AP exams.
But students from these Top schools do very well compared to thousands of other schools.

Access & Networking Yes. But the kids still have to perform at very high levels in order to get accepted into very competitive colleges.

Link below of Latest WSJ ranking:

WSJ.com

[UrbanQuest]

Originally Posted by UCBerkley85

That's very hard to believe.

Princeton High School was actually ranked by Wall Street Journal as the Best Public School in NJ. In addition, it ranked Princeton High School as one of the Top 5 Public schools in the UNITED STATES !
There ranking was based on the actual % of students who are accepted in the "most selective colleges" in america such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, John hopkins, etc.

I believe only two other NJ Public High schools made it to the list.

Princeton area's two elite PRIVATE schools also made it to Wall Street Journal's best high schools in the country.

Namely Princeton Day School & Lawrenceville School.

Note: The number #1 high school in NJ based on the WSJ was:

1) Delbarton Prep ( All boys private catholic in Morristown) -was ranked
# 9 best high school in the entire united states.- the only NJ school to be named top 10 in the country.

2) Lawrenceville School ( Private Co-ed non-religious in Lawrenceville, NJ-next to Princeton)

3) Kent Place ( All Girls private non-religious in Summit )

All top 10 best high schools in the US were private.

But Princeton High school's success especially as a Public school was very impressive. They attribute a lot of this to a very high concentration of students who have parents who are PROFESSORS at Princeton University with Phd's Doctorate degrees. So their children are obviously also highly educated & talented.

Personal opinion: I believe the WSJ just exposed or at least showed us why the wealthy in the country especially in the Northeast Region , the West Coast & the highly educated wealthy region of VA/MD spend $30K to $45 K per year for high school.

Its much more than quality education. Its about access to Top Universities in the country. It obviously gives their kids the extra edge. But if you take a look at National AP Testings, places like Delbarton, Kent, Lawrenceville, Princeton really have a VERY HIGH PERCENTAGE of students who
do extremely well. There is No fudging numbers. It is what it is. Kids across the nation take the same AP Exams. From the hot streets of Phoenix to the marble streets of Boston. Its the same AP exams.
But students from these Top schools do very well compared to thousands of other schools.

Access & Networking Yes. But the kids still have to perform at very high levels in order to get accepted into very competitive colleges.

Link below of Latest WSJ ranking:

WSJ.com

I think Princeton is the ONLY regular public high school on that list.

[mark4chester]

Originally Posted by UrbanQuest

I think Princeton is the ONLY regular public high school on that list.

wow Holy crap! carefully going through the famous alumni list of these high schools on the Wall Street Journal ranking just blows my mind

this is like a customized list by the wall street journal exclusively for the benefit of its base of readers - w/c are the Rich & wealthy parents as a guide to sending where to send little joe and little jane

by the way looking at the list yes only princeton high makes the list as a regular public high school.

congrats also to NJ's finest. For a very small state like ours, to have multiple schools make the list is short of impressive. we sure have very good schools. especially when only schools from 12 states had schools chosen. congrats to delbarton, kent place, pingry, lawrenville, princeton day school and princeton high school.

considering all these nj schools above except for princeton high costs anywhere from $25,000 to $45,000 per year is unreal

6 nj high schools out of NJ. that's 10% of the list , for a small state- thats unbelievable

but what an amazing list of graduates coming from
these schools.
i stopped counting at 35 famous people in all fields.

Tons of Billionaires big #'s of Generals, Politicians ( tons of them)
Tons of hollywood big shots & actors, sciences music art banking politics big retail big internet names, pulit prize winners and more

these 60 schools above probably account for i'd guess 70% of the movers and shakers in american history

there are too to list the alumna & alumnae of these top wsj high schools
here is a taste

Pres. George H. Bush
Pres. George W. Bush
Gov. Jeb Bush
Pres. John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy Jr.
Sen. Robert Kennedy
Sen. Ted Kennedy
Jackie Kennedy
Caroline Kennedy
Ivanka Trump
Eric Trump
James Murdoch ( son & heir of media mogul rupert Murdoch)
Gov. Christie Todd Whitman
Conservative Columnist Bill Kristol
Liberal Publisher of Nation -Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Oliver Stone
Yo Yo Ma
Famous Designer Vera Wang
Tennis stars John Mc Enroe & Patrick Mc Enroe
Sen John Kerry
Sen Lincoln Chafee
Sen Greg Judd
Rob Ingersoll ( Sec. of state for Nixon and Ford)
Billionaire Ross Perot
Sen.Jay Rockefeller
Sen. Kent Conrad
Billioanair David Rockefeller
Billionaire Pierre Dupont ( all his siblings & children)
General Barry McCaffrey ( CNN military analyst)
General James Parker ( former Army head)
General Richard Sutherland Army head under Bush)
Paul Bremer- architect of rebuilding Iraq
Robert Stearns- Founder of Bear Stearns
Ned Lamont- Wealthy Millionaire & Connecticut Senatorial Candidate
CEO multiple Music companies ( like Atlantic Records, Virgin,
Multiple former ( and current) Presidents of - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Upenn, MIT,

-the two obama daughters attend school on list
-Chelsea Clinton is a grad of the same school
-Al Gore's daughters
David Eisenhower ( son of Dwight)
Todd Lincoln ( son of Abe )

many more current & former senators, congress members and Governors. too many to list
Over a Dozen CEO's and Owners of Professional Teams
such as Chicago White Sox, Kansas City T, Miami Dol, LA Lakers, Boston Red Sox & Celtics,

3 former US Treasure Secs.
at least 4 former CEO's of goldman sachs
3 CEOS of Merrill Lynch
3 former CEO's of jp morgan chase
3 former CEO's of American express
6 former CEO's of citibank
2 former CEO's of Bank of america
Publishers/CEO of numerous Media - Washington Post, Boston Globe, New York Post, New York Times, Wall Street journal
Facebook founder & CEO- Mark Zuckerberg

3 current CNN anchors
4 current MSNBC anchors
2 current Fox anchors
2 current ABC anchors

i think this list proves that one's formative years -high school in particular is almost just as important as college. the rich do things for a reason. its really all calculated moves that cost tons of money.

[looktowindward]

The NJ Monthly list is pretty questionable - I took a close look at the data, and the sensitivity of the final score in relation to certain of the criteria is out of whack. A good example is class size, which seems to have an outsized impact on the final score. In a couple of cases, schools that were superior in all other dimensions were pushed way down the list, based on class size.

There is little science involved in setting the sensitivity of each factor.

[lkb0714]

Originally Posted by elflord1973

Why should they do that ?

Is setting up shop in a town that is prohibitively expensive for most families, and only allowing its residents to attend not also "cherry picking" ?

PS Ikb: njmonthly do include McNair. You don't need to look very far down the list to find it (usually 1 or 2) ...

My mistake I had it backwards.

They EXCLUDE all of the monmouth co acadmies (like High Tech) and include McNair. Seems unfair.

[lkb0714]

Originally Posted by AnesthesiaMD

This isn't about their obligation, it's about the ranking qualification. I dont think there is an obligation to the weaker students. It is a charter school.

No we are NOT CHARTER SCHOOLS. We are public schools more correctly public academies, we have all of the same obligations as regular public schools. And while we are a school of choice we have learning disabled children and those with 504s/IEPs year after year. Additionally while there is an academic entrance exam for the monmouth co academies the other major criteria is demonstration of interest in the theme.

So since many children get in (since the test is not particularly hard) a lottery system is used to make sure students from each district actually get into the school. At least two from each town in our county. That means we are not taking the 10 geniuses from say Rumson in lieu of the kids from Asbury Park. It is much less like cherry picking than a private or charter school.

[angerinthenation]

I don't believe the list at all. I think it's rigged. Especially Millburn High School. LOL. I wouldn't send my kid there and it's not cause I'm black either. The only reason why it's so high is because the parents are REALLY involved in that school. That's about it. Otherwise, it's just like any other high school if you ask me. Judging from some of the characters I've seen there, it isn't what it's cracked up to be at all. I heard about them having to have some meeting about students having alcohol problems over there and some kid killed somebody's father in a hit and run in South Orange's downtown area last year.

[Jerseyt719]

You will always have a highly successful school when the parents are really involved.

Goes back to "education is what you make of it", and the "you", I think means the family, not just the kid. Let's face it, when you are on top of your kids and their academics/activities, they are going to excel.

Just like when your boss is watching you work, you do better (well, usually).

[TheGambler]

Originally Posted by angerinthenation

I don't believe the list at all. I think it's rigged. Especially Millburn High School. LOL. I wouldn't send my kid there and it's not cause I'm black either. The only reason why it's so high is because the parents are REALLY involved in that school. That's about it. Otherwise, it's just like any other high school if you ask me. Judging from some of the characters I've seen there, it isn't what it's cracked up to be at all. I heard about them having to have some meeting about students having alcohol problems over there and some kid killed somebody's father in a hit and run in South Orange's downtown area last year.

Wealthy school districts will always have drug and alcohol-related drama for two reasons. First, because students have money and other resources to better equip themselves with drugs/alcohol. And secondly, because when this is found out, parents of the "never in OUR community!" mentality freak out and hold silly meetings to convince themselves they're taking care of the problem. See: Manasquan as the poster child for this.

[Hal Jalikeakick]

i noticed Westfield mentioned a couple of times in this thread. Interesting that Westfield's ranking has dropped from: 22 in 2006, to 27 2008, and current ranking is 41.

My family just moved to Westfield, we have 2 kids in elementary school. Although the school year has just begun, so far i am happy with my childrens teachers. both set up meetings before school started to aquaint our children to their new school. both teachers have also been emailing my wife regularly to see how the kids are adjusting etc.